[1][7] Hannah Lawrence came from a respected and proud Quaker family, who had arrived in the New World already in the 17th century and had settled on Long Island.
William Lawrence, at the age of twelve, sailed with his mother and siblings from London to Massachusetts,in 1635.
Later, he received the rights to 900 acres of land in Vlissingen, New Amsterdam, corresponding to today’s College Point and Flushing on Long Island.
William Lawrence was a landowner, councilman, sheriff and judge in Queens County, NY.
At the time of their wedding, Jacob Schieffelin was still a British officer, while the Quakers were mostly anti-British.